ForgetMeNot Heart
by azelmajondrette
Summary: Marlin is left alone in Forget-Me-Not valley after the death of his wife. His young son has left and it's just him now. The farm is in awful shape and he is left picking up the pieces of his heart and trying to recover from the hurt of his loss. Marlin finds himself trying to make friends that he never attempted to make, and to banish the sadness from his heart. Rated T for caution


Chapter 1

Marlin couldn't believe it. She was gone. Almost seventeen years of marriage, and then just like that everything was over. The life they had made together had dissolved before it's time was truly up. He was left with nothing. It felt as if his life ended along with hers.

Things changed after her death. Their son, Philip decided to leave. He was only fifteen, but Marlin didn't stop him. He didn't have the heart to make him stay. The boy vanished just like his mother did. Marlin decided to stay on the farm, but it wasn't the same now. It had died along with her. Within the first spring the crops had all withered. Marlin sold all the animals save for Freya, Jill's favorite cow. She was a descendant from Jill's first cow who had the same name. She was long dead, like his wife, but Marlin kept the one that still lived.

Everyone was cautious around him. They were sympathetic, but the words I'm Sorry had been said enough. Soon enough the words of condolence seemed empty, and like any word said enough they had lost their meaning. The only one who hadn't showered the words upon him at the beginning was Muffy, the barmaid. She was 38 now, aged and lonely. Marlin had often seen her walking the length of the beach, a sad expression on her face. Before he had found it pitiful, and paid her little attention. Maybe that was Marlin's problem. Other than Jill he had never gotten too close to anyone. He didn't care about anyone's life but his. He had even drifted apart from Vesta and Celia, the latter being disappointed that he hadn't chosen her instead of Jill. She had gotten married eventually and left the town, only to come back a few years later with the news that her husband had left her. It didn't surprise anyone. It was an arranged marriage, and only he could have saved her from it. But he didn't, and she had dislike him ever since.

Everyone else- well he never cared to make friends. He wasn't the social sort. Only Jill had the ability to break through the coldness that hung around him. She had thawed his heart, and now with her death it had frozen again. Marlin walked over to the fields and stared at them. The earth looked dead. For the first time in sixteen years he saw them without any crops. He walked over to the house and next to it was Inu's old house. The dog had passed on as well, and the house was falling apart. The paint was chipped, revealing the wood beneath it. Marlin took in a shaky breath. He really was alone. All that was left was Freya, and what comfort could he seek within a cow?

It would do him no good to move. He needed some part of Jill, and the farm was all that existed of her. And what had come of it? Jill's dream, and her father's… what was he to do about it? He couldn't make it come true.

Out of the corner of his eye Marlin spotted a flower. He turned around and the blue petals gave it away. A Forget-Me-Not. An empty laugh came from Marlin. The flower that held the name of the town he lived in.

Maybe it was the town's fault. Forget-Me-Not. The name held the melancholy sadness that hung over the town. Even before Marlin married Jill he felt it. The town had friendly people, happy faces, but there was still an unmistakable sadness that lived there. Not everyone seemed to see it, but it was there. Perhaps Galen felt the sadness that was there as well when he lost Nina. Everyone would have to feel it at some point. And that flower, that happy looking blue flower wasn't as pretty as it seemed, and its name told you so. Even the color, blue, although pretty at first glance reflected the sadness.

Forget-Me-Not… how was it possible to forget? It would almost be better to be able to so that the sadness will not forever eat at your soul. Marlin's life, this town, sang the words Forget-Me-Not, because it told you of the grief that was waiting. Marlin crouched down and plucked the flower from the grass. As soon as he did he regretted it. For once you pick a flower you know that it will die. Marlin stared at the frail flower in his hand and sank to the ground. Grief poured out of him in the form is tears and it seemed as if he was trying to cry the memory of Jill out of him. But the frail smile on her face before she died told him of the fragility of life, she would always be alive in his heart.

She lived and ate at Marlin's heart, and she sang him the song of Forget-Me-Not valley.


End file.
